Graffiti

News about Graffiti, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Jun. 14, 2015

In Transit blog; London-based travel company NoteWorthy offers half-day tour of London's East End graffiti scene, led by local graffiti artist. MORE

May. 11, 2015

Side Street column; widespread appropriation of graffiti culture is highlighted in dispute between bottled water company Wat-aah and Little Italy Street Art Project; company sent cease-and-desist letter to street art collective for its use of takingbackthestreets hashtag, which it had trademarked; company alleges group's use of hashtag will cause confusion about its own charity work. MORE

Mar. 29, 2015

Corey Kilgannon Character Study column profiles B D White, New York City graffiti artist who has persisted in his craft despite being confined to wheelchair following spinal injury. MORE

Mar. 2, 2015

Side Street column; profile of Fernando Miteff, Bronx graffiti artist known as Nic 707 in the 1970s who has found his way back to art form that he abandoned for decades; Miteff has created new method that involves slipping pieces into empty advertising frames on subways and then removing them when train reaches end of the line. MORE

Jan. 1, 2015

Gallery owner Hugo Martinez and pediatrician Dr Juan Tapia collaborate to renovate Manhattanville space that now serves patients and art lovers; $2.4 million project features open waiting area floor plan with relaxed seating and graffiti. MORE

Jul. 13, 2014

Egyptian graffiti artist and muralist Ganzeer, who became famous during political movement that ousted Hosni Mubarak in 2011, is taking his protest art beyond Egypt; his work has been featured in several new projects and exhibits, including New Museum show highlighting artist responses to upheaval in Arab world. MORE

Jul. 8, 2014

Mourners gather in Queens to honor Jason Wulf, titan of New York City's graffiti movement who was recently found dead next to the third rail of a city subway station. MORE

Jun. 23, 2014

Side Street column; Carlos Mare of Harlem has spent the past three decades creating physical graffiti by sculpting and welding stainless steel into art for exhibition in galleries here and abroad; he is among artists from various disciplines showcased in the exhibition No Longer Empty: If You Build It, inside a soon-to-open apartment building in Sugar Hill neighborhood; location alone revives memories of cultural greats from Harlem’s past. MORE

Jun. 10, 2014

Google becomes latest organization to explore how or whether to capitalize on ephemeral art like graffiti with its Street Art Project, database of images from cultural organizations worldwide; street art poses legal, ethical and copyright issues, so Google has set strict conditions to hopefully mitigate such concerns and potential liabilities. MORE

May. 28, 2014

Spokesman for National September 11 Memorial says panels containing victims' names must be constantly inspected for graffiti scratched into the bronze surfaces; reports say 'anguished messages' have been scratched into panels, seemingly by victims' friends and family members as tributes but some vandalism has been seen. MORE

May. 28, 2014

Julia Baird Op-Ed article welcomes proliferation of street art by women across the world; notes in particular that the Arab Spring has resulted in flowering of street art by women; says in many cases, women have been inspired to claim space on the street precisely because it is a place of intimidation or threat. MORE

May. 14, 2014

Jim Dwyer About New York column; advertisers are paying six figures to redecorate subway trains decades after similar moving murals were considered eyesores and were wiped out after they first appeared on subway cars; graffiti murals are being displayed at City Lore gallery on Lower East Side. MORE

Apr. 16, 2014

Athens Journal; five-year economic collapse in Greece has spawned new burst of creative energy that has turned Athens into a contemporary mecca for political street art in Europe. MORE

Feb. 16, 2014

Law school dropout living in Bushwick, Brooklyn, has created street art persona Hanksy, marking walls around city with image blending actor Tom Hanks' face with well-known image by artist Banksy; project that began as whim has grown into phenomenon straddling mainstream humor and underground art. MORE

Feb. 9, 2014

Exhibit Wall Works: The Art of Graffiti, at Gold Coast Arts Center in Great Neck, exhibits works by graffiti artists who made 5Pointz in Queens famous (Metropolitan/Long Island). MORE

Feb. 7, 2014

Ken Johnson reviews City as Canvas, exhibit exploring history of New York graffiti, at Museum of the City of New York. MORE

Feb. 2, 2014

App City column on Geo Street Art app, which provides museum's worth of information on New York City's street art and graffiti and more than 150 artists involved in scene. MORE

Jan. 29, 2014

Martin Wong, collector of New York graffiti art, is being commemorated through City as Canvas: Graffiti Art From the Martin Wong Collection at Museum of the City of New York. MORE

Dec. 6, 2013

Rufino Garcia’s delivery truck in Queens the mark of Jonathan Cohen, graffiti from artist known as Meres One, whose work is synonymous with one of New York graffiti's most venerable institutions, 5Pointz; warehouse in Queens became a de facto museum of street art and was location where Garcia and Cohen, who was the curator, met. MORE

Nov. 29, 2013

Justin Bieber causes a stir in Australia with his latest foray into the art of graffiti. MORE

Nov. 25, 2013

Gradual loss of legal graffiti walls in New York City, like those on West Farms Road in the Bronx and 5Pointz in Queens, has some street artists wondering where they--especially younger, less established artists--will be able to paint; some are concerned whether there will be an increase in illegal tagging. MORE

Nov. 20, 2013

Painters whitewash walls of Queens, NY, graffiti mecca 5Pointz; Long Island City buildings that were landmark in New York graffiti scene for two decades; order by federal judge allows building owner Jerry Wolkoff to move forward with plans to demolish buildings for development; Wolkoff says whitewashing was humane thing to do but artists call it mass desecration. MORE

Nov. 15, 2013

Golan Heights Journal; more than a dozen international street painters leave their art work at various spots on edge of 1.8-mile-wide demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria; project is sponsored by Artists 4 Israel, New York group whose strong pro-Israeli stance has brought it much controversy. MORE

Oct. 29, 2013

British street artist and Banksy has wended his way through all five boroughs, festooning the streets of New York with his artistic graffiti; Banksy fans scurry to wherever anonymous street artist places his work to get free glimpse of art that sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars. MORE

Oct. 16, 2013

New Yorkers are alerted first by Instagram and then Twitter post to what is apparently latest work by elusive British street artist Banksy, who is on a monthlong 'residency' in the city; silhouette of the World Trade twin towers looming over a Lower Manhattan landscape with a burnt-orange chrysanthemum dangling where hijacked jet struck is found on side of building at 9 Jay Street in Brooklyn. MORE

Oct. 16, 2013

Editorial welcomes pseudonymous British street artist Banksy to New York for the month of October with a project he is calling 'Better Out Than In'; notes that his stencils and graffiti epigrams are popping up across the city, creating a sort of scavenger hunt for admirers. MORE

Oct. 9, 2013

New York City Council is expected to decide fate of 5Pointz, brick warehouses covered in graffiti in Long Island City, Queens; Wolkoff family, longtime owner of warehouses, is seeking to demolish buildings to make way for two towers with a combined 1,000 apartments; Wolkoffs have agreed to set aside additional space for affordable housing and artists’ studios with hope of winning approval for the $400 million project. MORE

Oct. 7, 2013

A new program teaching the style and history of illegal tagging is set to begin this month in New York. MORE

Sep. 17, 2013

The owner of the Hungarian Pastry Shop in Morningside Heights recently painted the walls of the bathroom — a longtime home for high-minded graffiti — and called for order and decorum. MORE

Aug. 30, 2013

Tour of New York City's legal graffiti art, from the Bronx to Coney Island MORE

Aug. 11, 2013

Look column presents photos of graffiti by Brazilian street artists featured in Rafael Schacter book The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti. MORE

Aug. 10, 2013

Michael Wilson Crime Scene column notes unwelcome proliferation of graffiti in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and efforts by residents to clean it up. MORE

Jun. 5, 2013

Staff at Saguaro National Park in Arizona say there is reason to believe that spike in vandalism and graffiti on public lands coincides with the rise of social media; vandals, who are even defacing majestic saguaro cactuses, are posting pictures of damage they have wrought on Facebook and other social media sites; unprecedented level and nature of vandalism is unnerving park officials across Western states. MORE

May. 29, 2013

Proposal by railway operator Deutsche Bahn to use drones to patrol railyards in effort to discourage graffiti vandalism has met resistance in Germany, where memories of Nazi-era denouncements of neighbors and East Germany’s secret police have engendered deep-seated discomfort with surveillance. MORE

Dec. 30, 2012

Willy Staley tribute to graffiti artist Wayne Roberts and social scientist James Q Wilson, who both died in 2012 and are included in the Times Magazine The Lives They Lived issue. MORE

Dec. 25, 2012

National Park Service works to preserve graffiti markings made by Native Americans during their 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay four decades ago, saying it is an important part of the island's history. MORE

Aug. 10, 2012

Federal grand jury toughens charges against three antiwar protesters who authorities say cut their way through security fences and sprayed slogans on the walls of the Y-12 National Security Complex, a nuclear weapons plant, in Knoxville, Tenn; MORE

Jun. 22, 2012

Tel Aviv Journal; Guy Sharett’s Hebrew lessons are taught in a walking classroom, using the graffiti in his Tel Aviv neighborhood to showcase the language of politics and culture. MORE

Jun. 12, 2012

Vandals spray-paint graffiti on the walls of Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial, with messages attacking Zionism and blaming Zionists for the Holocaust. MORE

Mar. 3, 2012

Red spray-painted silhouettes of goats, first appearing at a controversial redevelopment project in Kingston, NY, are now a favored form of graffiti art far beyond the Hudson River Valley, even as far away as Miami Beach; it is not entirely clear what the goats mean, if anything, but they are an object lesson in how fast images can spread in the digital world, quickly taking on varied interpretations. MORE

Jan. 29, 2012

Battle to clean up Sao Paulo's sprawling cityscape has become intertwined with a deeper social conflict as authorities attempt to stop pichacao, a graffiti style that reflects urban decay and deep class divisions MORE

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The photographer Patrick Worthington reveals the beauty of swaths of paint on the sides of city buildings, which bear an uncanny resemblance to the work of artists like Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell.